The Road to Wellville   by T.C. Boyle

Jan 2005     A christmas gift from a friend, Maria.

Hmmm... this book feels like a different genre to me: Perhaps it is of the class, Historical Fiction? It is the combination of three stories, all relating to the same world: that of early twentieth century Healthy, Natural Living. -The stories are of Kellogg, the Health guru, head of the most elite health club/wellness resort in the country, and inventor of the Corn-Flake. Another story is of an upperclass man who comes to this health-center, on the promptings of his wife, And lastly, there's an optimistic young business man/fortune seeker, who sees his chance to make millions, in the new Breakfast Cereal Market. So, all these stories take place simultaneously, and interact with each other.

Of course, in the background of these stories, there's the continual display of what this world was like: The Early Health Treatments, and the crazes that caught the minds of the land, (Such as Vegetarianism, weak electric-shock therapy, sham diets, and so forth.) The true underside of it is also shown, of all the confidence men, and scams that came around, pretending to be the latest cure for everything from cancer to upset stomachs, and being nothing more than narcotics or Booze. There is also the rather disturbing case of Radium being discovered, and hailed as a miracle of medicine: A new metal, that actually Radiates Energy! What could be healthier than that? It's like a medic's philosopher's stone: it's nearly magic! -And so treatments were set up, to give these healthy emissions to sick patients. (And thereby, give them cancer.)

The characters are enjoyable, and believable, and compelling. That's probably one of the strengths of this book. It's... just interesting to read. And I can think of nothing else to say.